ON A DARK AND FOGGY NIGHT
"I reckon I don't quite understand you, Gilder," said Captain Folkner,
very nervously. "I thought I was still in command of the Teaser."
"I shall not blame you for thinking so; but you are utterly mistaken all
the same," added Christy.
"Did you come here to take the command out of my hands? Is that the
reason why you sent all my men to Town Point?" demanded the captain,
getting an idea of the situation.
"If you had been a magician, you could not have come any nearer to the
truth."
"Who are you? I thought you were Gilder."
"I am not Gilder, though I found it convenient to answer to that name.
It is reported that the Teaser is a very fast steamer, and I wanted
her."
"Do you mean to say that you are a pirate?" asked Captain Folkner,
stepping back as if to emphasize his disgust at such a person. "I have
told you that the Teaser is a privateer, and it seems that you want her
more than I do; but I don't believe it."
"Privateers and pirates are about the same in this age of the world.
I am neither a pirate nor a privateer. Permit me to introduce myself
more precisely than I have thought it wise to do before. I am Lieutenant
Passford, of the United States steamer Bellevite; and I take possession
of the Teaser as a lawful prize. I think we need not discuss the matter
any longer, especially as the tide is high enough by this time to run
out of the bay. Disarm him."
"Say, what sort of a joke is this?" demanded the captain.
"If you are good-natured enough to regard it as a joke, I have not the
least objection," replied Christy. "But I shall be under the painful
necessity of confining you in your stateroom for the present, and I hope
you will make yourself as happy as possible, Captain Folkner."
The lieutenant directed Flint to have the prisoner conveyed to his
stateroom, and to have a man stationed at the door to see that he did
not escape, or do any mischief. The sentinel was to keep his eye on him
all the time, and not allow the room to be closed for a moment. The most
reliable man of the party was selected for this duty, for the captain,
in a fit of desperation over the loss of his vessel, which was his
fortune, might attempt some reckless act.
Accompanied by six men, Christy visited the engine-room, where nearly
all the hands remaining on board were employed. If there was to be
any trouble at all in completing the capture, it would be in this
department. Everything was in working order, and an engineer was on
duty, for the engine had been used in dragging the casks under the
bottom of the vessel.
Beeks was directed to arrest the men on duty, and the engine was handed
over to Sampson, who had been brought for such a position if the
expedition needed him in that capacity. But there was only an assistant
engineer and several firemen on duty, and these were disposed of without
any delay. They were all conducted to the wardroom, where they were
disarmed and a guard placed over them. A couple of sailors were detailed
to serve as firemen, and the work of taking possession was completed.
For the first time the lieutenant had an opportunity to examine the
prize, as she would be if he succeeded in getting her out of the bay.
She was certainly a fine little steamer, and, with the heavy gun mounted
on a pivot, she would have been capable of doing a great deal of
mischief among the unprotected merchant ships of the nation.
When he visited the cabin, he found two colored men there, one of whom
appeared to be a very intelligent fellow. He was very polite to the
lieutenant, and it was evident that he had no personal interest in the
success of the Teaser in the business for which she had been fitted out.
He was the cabin steward, and he had heard everything that had been said
in regard to the vessel since he came on board of her.
"What is your name, my man?" asked Christy, addressing the steward.
"My name is Davis Talbot; but no one ever calls me anything but Dave,"
replied the man, with a cheerful smile, as though he was not at all
disconcerted by the change which had come about in the ownership of the
Teaser.
"How long have you been on board of this steamer, Dave?" asked the
officer, much pleased with the intelligent face of the steward.
"About two months, sir."
"Where did this steamer come from?"
"Captain Folkner bought her somewhere in the West Indies, and brought
her here before the blockade was fairly established."
"Then she is an English-built steamer?"
"I suppose she is, sir; but I don't know anything about it."
"Then she has been here a long while. What has Captain Folkner been
doing all this time?" asked Christy curiously.
"Inventing, sir," replied Dave, chuckling.
"I see; he has that on the brain."
"The government threatened to take his vessel if he did not fit her out
and take her to sea. Then he hurried up, and got a crew ready; but they
had a quarrel last night, and most of the men would not come on board."
"Yes; I know all about that," added Christy, as he looked at his watch
by the light of the shaded lamp in the cabin. "I suppose you insist upon
serving the Confederacy, Dave?"
"I don't insist on anything, sir; I go where the ship takes me, and I
don't mean to quarrel with anybody."
"In other words, will it be necessary to put you under guard?" asked
Christy.
"I don't think it would do me any good, sir," replied Dave, laughing.
"Which side do you belong on?" demanded the officer, rather impatiently.
"I belong on Dave's side, sir."
"Which is Dave's side?"
"The side of freedom," replied the steward, with some embarrassment.
"I don't know you, sir; you don't wear the uniform of a Yankee or a
rebel, and the darkey gets crushed between the upper and the nether
millstone."
"Then to make the matter plainer to you, I am the third lieutenant of
the United States steamer Bellevite, and I have captured this vessel as
an officer of the United States Navy," replied Christy.
"That's all I want to know: the darkey knows where to go, when it is
safe to go there," replied Dave.
"Then if it is safe for you to go to the pilot-house, you may come with
me," added the lieutenant, as he led the way to the deck.
Beeks, with the men who had not been assigned to other duty, was cutting
away the ropes that held the casks in place, and had already turned
adrift all the raft of them alongside. All the rubbish the nautical
inventor had collected to carry out his famous scheme of floating the
vessel through the sound was cleared from the deck, and cut loose from
the side.
"I think everything is clear, sir," reported Beeks, as Christy appeared
on deck with Dave.
"Stand by to get up the anchor, then," added the lieutenant.
"No anchor down, sir," interposed Dave. "She is made fast to the buoy."
"So much the better. I suppose Captain Folkner did not trouble himself
about the forts, Dave, did he?" Christy inquired.
"Yes, sir, he did; Captain Folkner never slept a wink when he did not
have Fort Pickens on his stomach for a nightmare," replied Dave, with
a chuckle.
"But Fort Pickens is all of four miles from the entrance to the channel
of the sound."
"He was in mortal terror of the guns, all the same."
"How was it in regard to Fort Barrancas and Fort McRae?"
"Of course they would not fire on his vessel; if he went out in a fog
or dark night, he was to burn a blue light; and I reckon you can do the
same thing, though I don't believe it could be seen to-night from the
forts," replied Dave, who appeared to be willing to make a good use of
his knowledge.
"Then I don't think we shall have much trouble in getting out of the
bay," added Christy, as he went to the pilot-house, attended by Dave.
Since the lieutenant had declared as unequivocally as he desired who and
what he was, the steward did all he could to assist his new master. He
had served Captain Folkner for two months, for he said the commander had
lived on board all this time, and he had heard everything that passed
between him and his officers and others with whom he had relations.
He was about as well informed as though he had been an officer of the
vessel in whom the captain confided all his affairs. He did not wait to
have his knowledge dragged out of him, but he volunteered such
information as he saw that the occasion required.
He was a mulatto, and had plenty of good blood in his veins, though it
was corrupted with that of the hated race. He appeared to be about forty
years of age, and his knowledge of the affairs of the locality could
hardly have been better if he had been a white man, with a quick
perception, a reasoning intellect, and a retentive memory. It was the
rule with Union officers, soldiers, and sailors to trust the negroes,
making proper allowance for their general ignorance and stupidity, and
for particular circumstances. But some of them, even many of them, were
brighter than might be expected from their situation and antecedents.
The binnacle from the whaleboat had been brought into the pilot-house,
and Christy compared it with the compass in the Teaser's apparatus,
after Dave had lighted it. There was no disagreement, and as the tide
was still coming in, the head of the steamer was pointed to the
westward, which would be her first course down the bay.
The lieutenant felt that everything depended upon the working of the
steamer, and he was a total stranger to her peculiarities, if she had
any, as most vessels have. Taking Beeks with him, he began at the stem
and followed the rail entirely around the steamer, feeling with a
boat-hook along the sides. Sundry ropes, fenders, and pieces of lumber
were dislodged, and everything put in order about the main deck. Then
he visited the engine-room, and learned from Sampson that he had a full
head of steam. This careful inspection completed, he ordered the
quartermaster to cast off the fast at the buoy.
Taking his place in the pilot-house with Beeks, he rang the bell to go
ahead. The Teaser started on quite a different voyage from what she had
been intended for. Christy had studied up his courses and distances, and
had imprinted the chart of the lower part of the bay on his brain. For
the first part of the run, there was no obstacle, and no difficulty in
regard to the course.
The fog and the darkness were so dense that not a thing could be seen
in any direction; but he rang for full speed as soon as the Teaser was
under way. A leadsman had been stationed on each side of the forecastle,
though there was no present occasion for their services. Christy thought
everything was going extremely well, and he was reasonably confident
that he should succeed in his plan.
"Steamer, ahoy!" shouted a voice, coming out of the dense fog.
"That must be the patrol boat," said Dave, in a low tone.
Christy could not make any reply that would be satisfactory to the
patrol, and he decided not to answer the hail. He had rather expected
to be challenged in this way.